So the truck is in the shop (muffler decided to divorce itself from the front pipe assembly) and while it's getting this quick & easy fix, I am going to ask them to do a chemical block test and pressure test.

The reasons for my suspicious about a possible gas leak are that I tend to have a good amount of pressure in the system even up to 48 hours stone cold. Also, in my quest to rid the system of the dreaded waterfall sound, I thought I had solved it (properly bled) but noticed on a recent trip that the sound came back after a long stretch of highway driving. My theory is that air is getting into the system somehow.

I'm not losing any coolant (at least not to the naked eye) and I'm not overheating (typically 188-199 highway, 206 at idle) but I'm also just paranoid as hell about this vehicle.

Thinking a pressure test & chemical block test should put my worries at ease or at least give me heads up on a possibly impending HG job. Or, cracked block and trip to the Landy graveyard. Thoughts? Should I be testing anything else?

 

Seems like a very intelligent thing to do. You could simply have a little leak somewhere.

 

So, the shop doesn't do chemical block tests. He said he could pull all the plugs and check for coolant there, but that's about double the labor I'd like to pay for just right now. I'll just rent the tester from Autozone. They're gonna do a pressure test though. Also, an update that doesn't matter, they installed a new muffler but said the tailpipe is still all good. So saving money for something else! Lord knows I'll need it.

 

You can easily check the pressure by renting the tool from Autozone yourself. You just need a flashlight, a spark plug socket(get the one without the magnet, more trouble than it's worth), little extendable mirror, and some beer to reward yourself after.

 

I have a teeny tiny leak on one of mine, barely drinks any coolant. It does however tend to overpressurize the cooling system. This resulting in blowing the seal between one of the heater hoses and the coolant pipe under the spring clamp, but only under high rpms. Took it on a 5 hr drive and after two continuous hours of driving it had pumped all the coolant out and overheated. I got it pulled over before too much damage was done, still runs fine. Drove it 5 hrs home, two hours one way to pick up another Rover, towed another Rover home up a mountain pass, no serious issues. I run it with the cap 1/4 turn loose to keep it from overpressurizing again, it still drinks slowly. Coolant gas test slowly turns blue chemical slightly green, but it takes mroe than a minute of testing to find it.

Had another one that I did not do this too and it blew a hole in the main lower hose - pumped it all out in about 30 seconds. Went home on a trailer

If you think it is overpressuring (hard radiator hose), you need to think about your next steps. To prevent serious damage, you mostly need to make sure it is always topped off. They will run a long time with a small leak, big leaks become undrivable.

 

Pressure test on the coolant system as fine. No leaks, no lose of pressure. I will rent the block tester from Autozone tomorrow.

On another note, the mechanic charged me 200 bucks for JUST the muffler plus another 250 for labor. Didn't install a new tailpipe or anything. Feel like I'm getting ripped off a little?

 

 

Yea, I'm gonna try to get it down a bit. I'm not an idiot and don't appreciate getting taken for a ride. I picked this place because it's right near my work and I always see really cool cars there, some mid-90s G-wagons and at least two gorgeous 80s Land Cruisers, so I figured they'd be competent. They're probably expensive because they're in the heart of gentrified Williamsburg BK, but 250 for labor to install a muffler just seems crazy.

Unless it's not impossible to think it could have taken that long? He said it was on the lift for over 2 hours...

 

 

Thanks, that's good to hear. Yea, I'm not gonna haggle with him too much. He did say it was pretty rusty and they had to break through all the hardware.